Ebony Mail
' Ebony Mail' is considered by some to be one of the most powerful chest pieces in the games, providing useful protection and abilities. The Elder Scrolls: Arena During the third era, the Eternal Champion was an owner of the mail. It was hidden in Black Marsh after the previous owner, a warrior named Helath Stormbinder lost the favor of Boethiah. Following a strange map, the Eternal Champion eventually found the resting place of the mail and retrieved it for his war against Jagar Tharn. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall During the third era, the Hero of Daggerfall was awarded the Ebony Mail by Boethiah after completing an elimination job. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Click here for a video walkthrough on how to obtain it. The Ebony mail makes its appearance in Skyrim after completing the Daedric quest, Boethiah's Calling. The cuirass is a heavy armor with an approximate base defense of 46. It grants the wearer a special muffle effect, and deals 5 poison damage per second to any enemies nearby. A unique feature of the ebony mail is it grants the wearer a 'shrouded' effect while sneaking, making the wearer appear more like a shadow (similar to the Chameleon effect in earlier titles). Due to the handling of the particle effect's DDS texture file, the smoke effect coming from the mail while using a bow or other weapons can potentially make it difficult to see regardless of the visual settings. Uses for Ebony Mail While Ebony Mail is not the only heavy armor in the game with stealth enchantments, it is the most directly acquired. Other heavy armors with muffle, sneak bonuses, or lockpicking enchantments are randomly generated at traders or in containers and may take significant time to locate due to the many variations possible when the store or chest is first generated. It was originally stated that the Ebony Mail's shrouded effect was only a visual effect, but after further investigation has proven to be a functional part of the armor. The wearer is at least 15-20% harder to detect when sneaking in the armor. Thieves Guild : If you decide to take the Thieves Guild quests later on in the game after you've already specialized in another play style with your character other than thief, the Ebony Mail can give you a much needed edge in completing quite a few Thieves Guild missions. The Dark Brotherhood : This armor will provide synergy in completing your assassination jobs by allowing easier break-in and escape of the targets home or vicinity. Though stealth is entirely optional for these quests. Dungeon Diving : The Ebony Mail can give a player an advantage when choosing non-violent (stealth) approaches to exploring dungeons for whatever reason. Followers : Heavy armor style followers can be made into much less of a liability for a sneaky character by being equipped with the Ebony Mail. It is also advisable to give them equipment further boosting their stealth, such as fortify sneaking. Vampirism : The armor's added stealth effect stacks significantly well with the stealth bonus from Vampirism (Skyrim). DoT (Damage Over Time) Stacking and Stealth DoT : The armor can be combined well with cloak spells, wall spells (sprayed on the ground around the caster), Reflect Blows and setting enemies on fire or shocking them (as both have lingering effects). Additionally, using the Ebony Mail in conjunction with invisibility spells and potions or powers like the Shadowcloak of Nocturnal and Embrace of Shadows will damage enemies who are searching for but cannot see you. You can easily stand right next to an enemy that is ostensibly "searching" for you while dealing DoT with impunity. Take care not to touch the enemy, otherwise they will detect you. Notes *Also be aware that wearing the Ebony Mail in cities or towns can affect your standing in the town. The guards and towns people will attack you even if you have not done anything. It is unknown whether this is a bug or intended because of the Daedric backround it carries. * The Poison DoT effect will only affect enemies who are currently hostile to you, i.e. red dots on the compass. This rule extends to more than just followers, guards, NPCs, etc. It also applies to bandits/Forsworn/necromancers etc who have not seen you yet. *The "Ebony Mail Muffle" effect completely compensates for the fact the chest piece is heavy armor, the chest piece also makes a character harder to detect than one wearing a light armor chest piece, especially in bright light. **Best results occur when all other pieces of armor are of the light category, the effect does not compensate for wearing all heavy armor, even if said armor also includes normal muffle effects and fortify sneak enchantments. *Please note that the Ebony Mail should not be worn while brawling or sparring with certain npcs (Vilkas, etc), as its poison effect will harm your opponent and earn you a bounty for assault. This poison effect also applies to guards attacking you due to a bounty and may ruin chances of surrendering peacefully. **Wearing the armor also counts as an unsheathed magically charged hand, as guards will comment as though the player were walking around with spells at the ready. *Enemies MUST either see you or be searching for you for the poison damage to take effect. If you sneak behind an enemy and they do not see you, no poison damage will be dealt. **Enemies can be damaged by the poison effect without detecting the player, the effect will also work while on horseback **If you attack a horse and then ride it while wearing the mail, the poison effect will slowly kill the horse causing it to buck every few seconds until it dies. *The Ebony Mail is not as advisable if you're an archer as the swirling black effect will block a large portion of your view when you zoom in, especially at night. **If the player is skilled at predicting an enemies movement patterns or uses a detection spell/shout (Aura Whisper, etc), this becomes less of an issue as the player can be accurate despite having a blocked line of sight. *Since the 'shadow' effect is activated in the precence of hostiles, it can be a usefull indicator of impending attack. If you find that you keep being ambushed by unnoticed enemies then you might find this a usefull item. *Cannot be upgraded using Atronach Forge. *I observed many lower level NPC's such as Bandits, townsfolk, etc to flee after being about 3 seconds in the effect of the poison. They run away, crying "I yield, I yield!" and hide somewhere. *The effect stacks with destruction cloaks and the dark elven power ancestor's wrath. This can make a rather strong damage over time effect for people attacking you. You can win fights with only wearing heavy armour and blocking all that attacks you. If you render yourself invulnerable to magic (see Breton), long range attacks are no problem as well. I just recommend to have ways to attack back over range as you may be to slow to catch up, especially against mages. External Links *A detailed video guide can be found here Bugs * If the player equips Ebony Mail right in the crouch invisibility animation of Shadow Warrior while under the Invisibility spell, the shadow effects and damage aura may become a default Active Power when crouching (you get shadow tendrils and damage aura without having to wear the Ebony Mail), quicksaving and loading may fix it so that it just works during the 1 second Shadow Warrior perk invisibility. * If the Champion of Boethiah is resurrected with Dead Thrall after the Mail is taken, he will regain the Ebony Mail once the area is left, allowing for multiple copies of the Ebony Mail. * If you have a follower wearing the armor and try to make them into a blade, the armor will be replaced with blades armor and will not be able to be retrieved again. * If you use the Become Etheral shout and crouch and equip the Ebony Mail, after the shout wears off you won't have the black aura around you until you re-equip the armor. Gallery EbonyMail night.png|Ebony mail 'Shadow' effect at night. EbonyMail day.png|Ebony mail 'Shadow' effect during the day. Ebonymail_Stats.png|Ebony Mail stats screenshot BlackMail.JPG|Lydia uses the Ebony Mail|link=Ebony Mail (Skyrim) Appearances *The Elder Scrolls: Arena *The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim References ru:Эбонитовая Кольчуга (Skyrim) Category:Armor Category:Artifacts Category:Enchanted armor Category:Skyrim: Unique Armor Category:Skyrim: Daedric Artifacts Category:Heavy Armor